Effect of Compatibilizing Agent on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Wood-Plastic Composites

Abstract

Polypropylene and wood flour were used as raw materials,maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene(MAPP) as compatibilizing agent, wood-plastic composite(WPC) was prepared by compression molding process. The effects of the content of MAPP on the mechanical and thermal properties of WPC were investigated. The results show that, with the increase of the content of MAPP, both the tensile and flexural strengths of WPC will increase, and the impact strength of WPC increases first, then decreases, and the impact strength reaches the maximum of 1.18kJ/m2 when the content of MAPP is 4%,which is 76.7% increased from that of the composite without MAPP. Each composite has an obvious heat-absorption peak when melted during 140-170 and the melting enthalpy of WPC increases with the content of MAPP, the melting procedures of all the composites are quite similar with one another. Application of MAPP can improve the thermal stability of WPC